Penelope Cruz Sanchez

Penelope Cruz Sanchez is the daughter of Eduardo Cruz, a Madrid hairdresser, and Encarna Sanchez, a hairdresser from Madrid. She was an obsessive performer when she was a kid and even reenacted commercials on TV to amuse the family. But she chose to focus her attention on dancing. She continued to train with a number of well-respected dancers, after having spent 9 years studying classical ballet at Spain's National Conservatory. Her true calling was discovered at age 15, when she beat more than 300 girls at an audition for an agency for talents. The agency offered her roles on Spanish music videos and TV. This led to many more roles, and opened the doors to a successful career on the world of big screens. Cruz was first seen in a movie in The Greek Labyrinth (1993) (The Greek Labyrinth) Then she appeared briefly in the Timothy Dalton thriller Framed (1992). The Oscar-winning Belle Epoque (1992) was her third film. In it, she played one of the four sisters who were fighting for the attention of a handsome deserter from the Army. The film also won several Goyas which is the Spanish equivalent to the Academy Awards. She continued adding films to her portfolio, growing by three or four every year. Soon Cruz was the leading lady in Spanish cinema. Live Flesh (1997) (Live Flesh) offered her the chance to work with renowned Spanish director Pedro Almodovar (who would later be her ticket to international fame), and the same year she was the lead actress in the thriller/drama/mystery/sci-fi film Open Your Eyes (1997), a huge hit in Spain that earned eight Goyas (though none for Cruz). In 1998, her fortunes changed when she took home the award for best Actress Goya for the movie industry comedy La Nina De Tus Ojos (1998). Cruz had a few more forays into English-language film, but her first big international success was the film of Almodovar All About My Mother (1999) in which she played a sexy but thoughtful nun. When the film was lavishly adorned with awards and praises, Cruz quickly found herself being sought after on both sides of the Atlantic. The American comedy Woman on Top (2001) was her next major film, tells the story of an American chef with amazing culinary skills and extremely motion sickness. When she was in the US,